Lack of community support may stop Bellbowrie green bridge

Brisbane City Council may have to go back to the drawing board on plans to deliver five new green bridges across the city, with residents in one area rallying strongly for a traffic crossing.

The council is planning to build several new green bridges.

A “VERY concerning” lack of support could halt the progress on one of Brisbane’s five new green bridges with residents dissatisfied about the location and use of the bridge.

Findings from a survey presented to Brisbane City Council’s Public and Active Transport Committee this morning, showed 46 per cent of the 545 respondents who commented about the Bellbowrie Bridge saw “little benefit” in a bridge that cannot accommodate cars.

Seventy-two per cent of those respondents who commented on the Bellbowrie bridge “strongly disagreed” with the bridge’s alignment, while 63 per cent said they would never or rarely use the bridge.

Meanwhile, planned green bridges Kangaroo Point, St Lucia, Toowong and Breakfast Creek attracted majority support from residents, with at least 50 per cent of respondents saying they’d use their respective bridge weekly or daily.

Pullenvale Ward Counsellor Greg Adermann said the lack of support for the Bellbowrie bridge was “very concerning for such a key piece of infrastructure”.

“My community is telling me … if there’s to be a bridge at Bellbowrie it must carry cars,” Cr Adermann said.

He called for a revised consultation period “to make sure we deliver what my community really wants”.

The Bellbowrie bridge is proposed to link Weeks Rd at Bellbowrie and Grindle Rd at Wacol, incorporating Pullenvale and Jamboree wards – the only two Brisbane wards to elect new councillors at this year’s elections.

Simon Ingram at proposed site of cross river bridge at Bellbowrie. Picture: Richard Walker

Opposition Leader Jared Cassidy said the green bridge program was already in disarray, with LNP councillors bickering among themselves and bridges being scrapped on a whim.

“The committee chair now plans to just pluck another bridge out of thin air ­but seems to have no idea where. These things cost hundreds of millions of ratepayer dollars ­– the lack of planning is frightening and appalling,” Cr Cassidy said.

“How did they get it so wrong in the first place?”

Committee chair Councillor Ryan Murphy said a revised consultation about the bridge would take place before planning for the Bellbowrie bridge could proceed.

“At the end of the day the program … is to deliver five green bridges and a bridge that carries cars is not a green bridge.”

“So it wouldn’t fit in under this program … if that bridge is a bridge that residents out there desire for cars, we’ll need to find an additional green bridge for our program.”

Bridge 4 Bellbowrie Akdvocacy Group spokesman Simon Ingram previously told The Courier-Mail that there was strong support for a general traffic bridge.

“A green bridge is good for emergency services and cyclists, but the majority of people are not commuting to the city, about 85 per cent of the traffic on Moggill Rd is driving to other locations.”

Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner said the Kangaroo Point green bridge would be fast tracked following the community’s positive response, “to provide a new way for people to get in and out of the city”.

Construction of the Kangaroo Point Green Bridge is expected to begin in 2021, ‘with the bridge at Breakfast Creek to follow’.